TAROT Coins
The Coins of TAROT are experts on infiltrating and subverting businesses for TAROT's own purposes. Missions undertaken by Coin agents generally fall into two areas: open acquisition of a business concern by a TAROT front company, or industrial espionage involving breaking into the target company and stealing research, records, or other valuable commodities. The Coins Division is also in charge of all computer crime committed by the organization. As far as training is concerned, the Coins Division is a bit of a hodge-podge. They are intelligence collectors, but not as assertively active in that function as the Wands agent are. They keep abreast of and are familiar with the latest technological developments, but not to the point that Cups agents would be. And lastly, they are capable of sabotage, attack, and assassination, but not as deftly as Swords agents would be. Despite this, The Emperor considers the Coins to be the most important of all of TAROT's personnel (outside of himself, of course), as the goal of the organization is economic control of the planet. It is because of this that the Coins are generally better funded and equipped when compared to the other Divisions. As with the other Divisions, the Coins are ranked by their suit (from Ten of Coins, a recruit trainee, to the Ace of Coins, the head of the entire division). Unlike the ranking among the Swords, an individual Coin's rank is far more akin to a Civil Service Pay Grade level than a military rank. A Coin's "rank" indicates the level of his responsibility, not necessarily how many people he can order around. Coins are most commonly recruited from the ranks of talented yet disgruntled middle managers, white collar criminals, and college students specializing in public relations, computer programming, economics, or business. When in the field, Coin agents never wear TAROT uniforms (doing so would logically be detrimental to their effectiveness). In fact, most Coins who work out of a base (like Computer Specialists) rarely, if ever, are called upon to wear any sort of uniform. On formal occasions, or during a workplace inspection, they wear the standard gray TAROT uniform with gold-colored shoulder tabs, belt, and striping. Stefan Kreutzmann, whom the public knows as the President and Chairman of UniTech SLG (a German multinational corporation that virtually no one suspects of being a TAROT front company, is the current Ace of Coins. He's held the position since his predecessor, Rupert Murdoch, ascended to the TAROT Council thirty years ago and will likely die holding the office unless something untoward requiring his removal occurs. Kreutzmann has managed to keep even the scintilla of suspicion away from himself regarding his illegal activities to the point that his wife and most of his children have no idea who his actual employer is. Two of his six children actually did discover his illicit activities; his oldest daughter, Isolde, was recruited into TAROT and now serves in the Wands Division. His son Erik, however, refused to be co-opted; his body was later found under the ice of a frozen pond on the family's estate. Erik Kreutzmann's death was attributed to a skating accident. Subdivisions The Coins Division can be sub-divided into the following smaller groups: Computer Services Whenever TAROT needs to get into a secure computer, they call on a Computer Services agent. They are experts at penetrating computer networks, retrieving data, inserting "useful programs" (meaning viruses, worms, trojan horses, and the like), and doing all the fun things a code-cracker likes to do anyway. In addition, they assist in the planning of field operations (sometimes even participating remotely if computer systems play a part), and defend TAROT bases from cyber-invasion. Computer Services agents tend to be among the youngest, least disciplined, and least dangerous-looking of all of TAROT's employees. Infiltration These agents are trained to enter a target area unobtrusively to obtain commercial information (or plant false information), steal objects, perform industrial sabotage, and the like. They also serve as deep cover operatives inside businesses that cannot, for whatever reason, be simply invaded (the Disney corporation, for example, is a security nut that so far TAROT has had a damned hard time cracking). Logistics Logistics agents are unusual among TAROT agents, because generally they never, ever leave the base to which they are assigned. They handle weapons and supply procurement, personnel assignment, agent recruitment, payroll and other base finances, base maintenance, and even in-house entertainment for the other agents. In short, the Logistics agent is a bureaucrat and supply clerk. Its not a glamorous job, but its an absolutely necessary one. Most Logistics agents know more about the inner workings of their base than their commanders. Media Relations The name "media relations" is actually a euphemism. It is the task of these agents to infiltrate media outlets (newspapers, radio stations, television networks, and even motion picture studios and book publishers) in order to steer public perception in a direction desired by TAROT. Whether they work as tabloid reporters, political pundits, magazine essayists, or shock jocks, they perform hatchet jobs on TAROT's enemies in order to make them look foolish, bury stories of TAROT's activities on the back pages, and squelch any serious investigation of the organization by journalists. Category:Agents Category:Tarot Villains